Jolla, the Finnish smartphone and Sailfish OS developer, today announced that Jolla's mobile operating system Sailfish OS has reached release 1.0 and is now ready for global distribution. Jolla is also introducing availability of the Sailfish OS experience as downloadable software to devices running Android OS.

The world's first Jolla phones were sold to mobile operator DNA's customers in Finland in late November last year. After the limited availability sales start of Jolla smartphones with Sailfish OS beta, Jolla has released three significant software updates. The fourth update will be released at the beginning of March, after which the software will be commercially ready for global distribution.

"We're very excited to announce this. We've been working hard together with our user community to make the user experience of the Jolla smartphone and Sailfish OS effortless and distinct. We believe that Jolla now offers a truly viable option for all smartphone users. Naturally we are not stopping here, as we continue to provide monthly software updates to Jolla devices and Sailfish OS," says Marc Dillon, Co-Founder and COO of Jolla.

Sailfish OS is a distinctive, gesture-based mobile operating system. Effortless navigation and live multitasking are at the heart of Sailfish OS, giving the user full control of their digital life at a given moment. The OS supports both native Sailfish OS applications as well as Android applications. The availability and interoperability of Android apps in Sailfish OS has increased greatly since the sales started.

"Customers are now able to install their preferred Android app store, and choose from hundreds of thousands of available Android applications. In addition, the active and passionate Sailfish OS community has already developed major social media applications, such as Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, and Foursquare, natively to the Sailfish OS," Marc Dillon says.

Currently Jolla smartphones are available for orders online at shop.jolla.com at the price of 399€ (incl. VAT) to all European Union countries, Switzerland and Norway. In Finland Jolla smartphones can be purchased also through local operator DNA's shops, and sales are now expanding to all common retail channels.

Jolla is now rapidly entering into new markets, and is negotiating with partners in several countries, including Russia, India and Hong Kong where Jolla will open online sales in the near future. Negotiations in several European countries are well on the way for Jolla to soon open new channels in main European markets.

Already in two months, Sailfish OS has been developed with major steps in terms of feature additions, fine-tuned performance and increased battery life. Among the major features and fixes have been landscape mode, camera zoom, and improved battery life, to name a few.

The fourth software update to be released at the beginning of March, raising the software to commercial readiness, will again include many important improvements and new features. These will include further improved performance, extended landscape support, lots of visual improvements, lots of new camera functionalities, enhancements to the Jolla store, new general settings, and many more.

Furthermore, thanks to its open development and open source software contribution model, Sailfish OS update cycle is extremely fast, resulting in monthly software releases, and the release plan provides unseen transparency for interested developers. This fits in particularly well for those who want to develop their own products using the Sailfish OS.

Sailfish OS downloadable to existing Android devices: Sailfish OS has been developed to be compatible with commonly available Android hardware platforms. Due to this advanced technology, Jolla is introducing the Sailfish OS experience as downloadable software to devices running Android OS. Users can soon start to enjoy the modern, gesture based Sailfish OS in selected Android devices and also renew the lifecycle of their existing older Android devices.

The Sailfish community has already ported Sailfish OS to several devices including major versions of popular Samsung Galaxy, Google Nexus, and Sony Xperia. Also, porting for highly popular Chinese Xiaomi products is under work in community projects.

In addition, Jolla is releasing its own Sailfish user interface launcher as an Android application, which can be used to simulate the Sailfish OS experience on Android devices. The app will be available for download in the near future from Jolla.com and from common Android market places.

"We see this as a huge volume opportunity for Sailfish OS as there are close to a billion Android users globally. Many of them are looking for new user experiences to freshen up their existing devices. Last year in China alone, about 100 million devices were re-flashed after the purchase with a new operating system. This approach allows Sailfish OS to scale into volume fast without limitations. This is a scaling opportunity in a similar way as we have seen in the mobile gaming industry recently," Antti Saarnio, Chairman of the Board of Jolla comments.

Jolla will release the downloadable Sailfish OS software in phases during the first half of 2014. First, the UI launcher application will be released so that users can start to experience the Sailfish user interface in their existing devices running Android OS. Later Android smartphone users will get the full Sailfish OS to their devices.

New partnerships: Jolla has formed new key partnerships in order to scale up its device business and Sailfish OS availability: with Rovio Ltd., Jolla launches a special The Other Half Angry Birds smart cover providing exclusive Angry Birds user experience. With F-Secure Corp., Jolla co-operates in mobile security and establishes trusted cloud services for their customers. All Jolla customers will enjoy gigabytes of free secure cloud storage integrated with their Jolla device experience. With Tieto Corporation, Jolla will offer integration services to OEMs and ODMs willing to start the use of Sailfish OS in their products.

"We believe that now is the momentum for next generation mobile operating systems to emerge. The current dominating mobile operating systems are being developed more and more towards closed ecosystems by their overly dominant owners closing their platforms from other businesses. At the same time the internet business growth already comes from the mobile internet, leaving many major businesses without sales channels and differentiation opportunities. The world needs a mobile operating system which is open to developers, customers, service providers and different business models. Just in a few months we have shown how fast an open operating system can develop compared to closed ecosystems. It's time for free choice instead of closed walled gardens," Antti Saarnio says.

Jolla is demonstrating the Jolla smartphone with Sailfish OS 1.0, Sailfish OS for devices running Android, and The Other Half partnerships at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on February 24-27, 2014. Jolla can be found in Hall 1, booth 1B25.

Of course, this is a very good news. I just hope that Sailfish OS with this release will be *REALLY* ready for COMMERCIAL shipment as a final, complete and fully polished mobile platform. Because what I now have on my Jolla phone (while really useful, unique and powerful for an advanced user as me) is still quite far from what a typical young smartphone user might like. In other words, the upcoming March update will need to improve A LOT of things to make it so. Otherwise, lots of casual new owners (as opposed to early adopters who knew what they were getting) may be as disappointed as those 'external' bloggers and journalists who wrote the first reviews.

Of course, I keep my fingers crossed for it, but I am a bit afraid that they decided to end the beta stage a little bit too early, especially that there's still just a handful of native applications (most of them of quite mediocre quality and/or still in the middle of development) and still no support for commercial software (and no word about it in any of the latest press releases). Android compatibility isn't as good as they're saying in the press release, either.

Especially the version of Sailfish OS for Android phones needs to be really good and complete, unless its only purpose is to scare away Android users for good. If it doesn't turn out to be fully mature and attractive, I can imagine that every Android user who flashes his phone with it to give it a try will very quickly revert back to Android, and will never bother to try again even if Sailfish OS seriously improves then.

But even if the OS itself turns out to be fully mature, with no decent number of native Sailfish OS applications I'm really not sure why Android users would want to switch to Sailfish OS. What for? To run their favourite Android apps on Sailfish OS in a (still very imprefect) Android compatibility layer?

STRONG SUPPORT FOR NATIVE APPLICATIONS SHOULD COME FIRST, and everything else then. Only this way it would be logical and benefit each other.

So let's hope they know what they are doing.

Still no word about support for commercial applications is quite disappointing, anyway. It made me switch to BB10 development for now, and it looks that I wasn't the only one as I recently noticed that new applications (in both the Jolla store and the Warehouse repos) have been coming at much slower pace than a month or two ago.

P.S. One funny thing that captured my attention was how they advertise "much increased battery life" as part of their frequent updates. Well, to be precise, it wasn't an improvement but a fix of a terrible bug making TOH drain the battery within hours Sadly there is still no fix for my white TOH which since day one (despite trying countless things) only displays "Problem with store. This The Other Half is not working" and doesn't even download its ambience. I guess I will need to simply send it back for replacement, but it's disappointing not to see any official comment on this from Jolla despite numerous people having the same problem (there are numerous threads about it on together.jolla.com), none of them with any sort of official fix.

P.S.2 It looks that after this update there will finally be the right time to write the review. I decided not to do it based on the beta version of the OS because to every complaint I would express I'd need to add that "well, but it's beta so it'll surely improve soon" or other things like that, which didn't make much sense. Now that THEY decided to make the system final, a proper review will be possible with no excuses.

What is the quality of the Android apps that are running on the Jolla phone? How are they working? Jolla is bringing a new update at the beginning of March. They have left the beta stage and are soon bringing the device globally. I think that's important that the most popular Android apps are running good on the Jolla phone.

Actually I am not a very big fan of the ACL, but for now Jolla hasn't much more options. In the coming period they need to focus much more on the native apps. Bring support for paid applications. Developers are now not able to release their apps. I have read that there are more than 100 native apps available at the Jolla store. That number needs to go up and fast.

What is the quality of the Android apps that are running on the Jolla phone? How are they working?

Compared to BB10, compatibility is still quite poor. Lots of Android APIs (like e.g. Bluetooth) are not supported, GPS doesn't work, etc. And while on BB10 each Android app runs separately and fully multitasks with other Android apps and with native apps, on the Jolla all Android apps run within one Dalvik instance, which means that you can see only one Android app at once and the remaining ones go to sleep in the background and you need to use a separate Android app switcher to switch between them. And if you close the compatibility layer then you close all Android apps at once, which is very annoying. On BB10 it is much better, beyond comparison.

Quote:

Developers are now not able to release their apps.

... and no new developers come to the platform if they cannot get any revenue. It's still the same small group of Maemo/MeeGo developers known from the N900/N9 times, with hardly anyone new.

So they are releasing an OS globally with quite poor Android compatibility. The consumer is going to try Sailfish and if they are experiencing problems with Android apps on Sailfish, then the chance is very high that they get disappointed and leave Jolla. The amount of native applications is too low, so men depends on Android apps and the ACL. The amount of native applications needs to go up and fast. If Jolla wants to get more native applications then they need to bring support for paid applications and support for Qt Positioning and Location.

I guess the relevant question to ask now is "Can Jolla survive?" Jolla can't depend on a small community of geeks and enthusiasts for its future. It must give general users good reasons to buy its phone. The only good reasons I can see is if Sailfish has a pool of quality native apps and unique features like TOH are capitalized. Banking on Android compatibility won't work when there are so many affordable Android phones around. Selling its OS to users is also chancy without 100% Android apps compatibility. Jolla need to look at its overall strategy. Even excellent Android compatibility hasn't helped BB10 so it's not going to save Sailfish.

So guys, it's March 15, three and a half months after the phone started shipping, and nearly 6 months since the Qt5 Sailfish OS SDK was released. And still nothing:
- no support for paid apps, as the only smartphone platform on Earth
- no single missing Qt module support added to the Harbor
- no actions whatsoever to stimulate development of native apps and attract developers: no developer programs/contests, etc.
- no single TOH accessory fully utilizing its potential, only ambiance-changing covers.

Well, I wasn't complaining about the ACL or GPS. It was about ABSOLUTELY NOTHING being done regarding native software, building own strong eco-system and all the features that were meant (and so strongly advertised) to make Jolla unique and different than the rest. And that, as I wrote, half a year since the Qt5 SDK was released, and nearly 4 months since the phone started shipping. One might say that it was too early when I was criticizing their lack of activity in this regard before they released the phone, but now the phone has been available for months, and literally NOTHING has changed. I can't recall a SINGLE activity of theirs, ever, aimed at attracting developers and making them create software for this platform...

I'm sure that you have noticed how the number of new applications, both in the Jolla store and the Warehouse, has seriously decreased lately - from poor to hopeless. How many new apps appeared in the Jolla store in the last 30 days? Five? (and how many of them worth installing? one?). And how many in the Warehouse repos? Ten? Come on, let's face it: it's DRAMATIC.

As long as there is no developer program of any kind and a posibility to loan a test unit, and as long as there's no support for paid apps, there will be no new developers - I dare to say NOT A SINGLE ONE. Except for the handful of Maemo/MeeGo/Jolla fans who already bought the phone, no one will pay 399 Euros for the phone just to be able to develop for a platform that doesn't even allow selling applications.... it's self-evident!

It's great that you can use Navfree, but I'm not sure if you needed a Jolla for that.... This phone was meant to be much more than just a (partial) Android emulator, but it STILL ISN'T. Nearly four months is like 1/3rd of a typical smartphone's life time... and NOTHING. And that's mostly because Jolla itself does (and says) ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to attract developers and ALLOW them to make software for this platform. Even if Android compatibility soon becomes PERFECT, it still won't substitute for no native software, the TOH feature not really being used, etc., because even with a 100% Android compatibility (and nothing else) the phone will be JUST as good (yet more expensive) as low-end Android phones, but nothing besides that. And for 399 Euros one could have bought an Android phone 5x more powerful than that.

I had some of my applications ported to Sailfish OS already in MARCH 2013 and I still cannot release ANY of them, despite the phone now being available for almost 4 months. This is something completely unprecedented. No one even cares so that people make native apps, or at least you can't sense any interest. They stress how small and poor company they are, but they don't open the store for commercial applications on which they'd be earning 30% of every sale. Instead of introducing some TOH-based accessories that EVERY Jolla owner would instantly throw his money at (like HW keyboard, solar charger, maybe some camera related stuff like e.g. zoom/macro lens, etc.) they introduce.... Angry Birds cover than only youngsters wouldn't be ashamed to carry, or Makia covers, as if any serious user wanted to pay for turning his phone into a free promo gadget of a clothing company. Like if I wanted to pay money for having "Adidas" or "Levi's" painted on my car.

So much has been said about how powerful the TOH feature is and look what we've got: just a couple of colors. Same for Active Covers feature, which is simply unused if there is no native software that can utilize it. Same for powerful multitasking, which is of little use with just a handful of native apps (and Android apps NOT multitasking). And so on.

I don't follow these guys' reasoning. And I'm really getting tired of waiting for so long for this platform to become a NORMAL platform and not just an Android emulator with a couple of colored covers. They behave as if they had CENTURIES of time ahead of them and nothing to worry about.

This whole thing closely reminds me another (truly ingenious in fact) project, working on which some other geeks spent a DECADE, keeping everyone waiting, only to just drop it in the end: the NATAMI next-generation Amiga. Those guys re-created the whole original Amiga chipset (and the whole hardware) from scratch and on top of that created (fully backwards compatible and fully integral with the original stuff) new modern and fast graphic resolutions, audio quality, and even a next-generation CPU (they called 68070) fully compatible with the MC68xxx series but delivering today's performance (and it was a real CPU, not just an FPGA clone of the 68060). And when the guy finally had working, complete boards sent out to numerous team members and beta-testers for final tests, he just dumped the project as he got tired/bored/whatever with it, or simply got something better or more profitable to do in his life. That after keeping everyone waiting TEN YEARS.

Unfortunately, Jolla looks more and more like a similar private project, where a couple of guys do things that SUIT them at the pace that SUITS them, don't really care too much if they succeed or not (as it is more a challenge/adventure than a business for them), and reserve the right to dump the whole thing whenever they get tired of it. They'll allow paid apps IF and WHEN they feel like doing so, they'll stop talking about Android compatibility and start talking about native development IF and WHEN they feel like doing so, etc.

P.S. Navfree works on BB10, too. Just like Sygic and probably everything else. Jolla's Android compatibility improves, but BB10's is still light-years ahead.

P.S.2 For a long time I haven't seen any serious blog or newspaper writing about Jolla. They haven't shown anything exceptional so it looks that everyone forgot about them.

P.S.3 Look at this forum: we don't even have any interesting things to talk about. No outstanding native applications, no useful TOHs... And even on the Jollausers forum (which seems to be the most active one) there are just around 3x more posts (3780 in total) than here (despite them running a Jolla website, which I still don't do). It's really poor and shows what state this platform is in...

P.S.4 Sailfish OS is a powerful, open OS. But that's what only a small group of geeks cares about (even on the N9 some 80% of users probably didn't know what the terminal was for). Everyone else expects more trivial things: lots of apps, useful accessories, something unique to show off. So far Jolla has NOT delivered any of such things: TOHs are limited to just COLORS (and individual projects which will never make it to production), Active Covers even in those few existing apps are very simple, there are no native applications that would be unique to this platform only and really impressive... It *IS* a nice phone, but that's surely not enough for an average user as in its current state it does not deliver to such user ANYTHING that ANY Android phone wouldn't be providing. Either Jolla does something to quickly change it or soon no one will care.

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